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Midsummer Lately

We are livin’ up summer over here! Remind me of this post in the dead of winter. From pool trips to vacations to amazing berries, peaches, watermelon and tomatoes, this is my favorite time of year. (With pumpkin beer season and crisp fall afternoons a close second!) Winter and spring, I got no love for ya. Well, maybe a little Christmas excitement, but Christmas feels more like an extension of fall!

On with the summer fruit!

Yogurt (Snowville Creamery – totally hooked) with Naturebox PB&J granola, blueberries and one of the first peaches of the season. YUM!

I’ve been eating so much yogurt for breakfast that I forgot about overnight oats – long time no see! Served with Barney Butter, rasp + blueberries and a mug of lovely coffee.

Next up we have berries with a hearty slice of Cville Crunch toast topped with homemade blackberry jam and Wild Friends maple sunflower butter. Simple but delish.

Do you guys still like hearing about my workouts? I didn’t take notes last week because I wasn’t at the gym much with my parents here. Mom and I went one day and did cardio stuff (I did small group) and the next day we did tons of walking. I had two back-to-back soccer games on Thursday and Friday nights that totally wore me out! We won one and lost one. Two days in a row was really hard – but that’s a great sign that I made the most of my time on the field!

Salad with mom at the Lovingston Café on the way back from Hillsborough. It was packed with greens, their famous smoked trout, cranberries, mandarin oranges and the best candied walnuts!

Raise your hand if you like French fries! Mom taught him to raise his hand practicing for preschool.

Matt and I shared the AMAZING beet salad with berries, candied nuts and goat cheese. Plus a big order of sweet potato fries in the background! I ate way too many – they are amazing! Best SP fries ever.

And mom and I shared this uber-rare burger (too rare for me but that’s how mom likes it!). FIY, that’s ketchup oozing out… I couldn’t finish it because I ate too much salad and fries!

My stomach made room though because for dessert I had the world’s smallest ice cream from Splendora’s

Other dinners included date night and this pasta salad with a recipe coming soon!

Comments

I think the point with the cows being vegan is to let customers know that the cows only ate grass. Cows are always started out on the pasture and then many are moved to CAFOs where they eat a combination of corn and corn by-products, medicines, and a variety of other ingredients, even “chicken litter,” which can include chicken remains, to fatten them up. (Mad-cow disease was caused by cows eating cow parts.) Grass-fed and grass-finished cows spend their lives in the pasture. If you are going to eat meat, eating “vegan,” grass-finished cows makes perfect sense. Of course, everyone has to decide for himself whether to eat meat, but hopefully this clears up what the sign means.

Allow me to clarify Heather’s point: there’s a whole philosophy behind being vegan, and the cow’s diet has nothing to do with it. No matter how well the cow was treated, a vegan is not going to eat meat or dairy (or wear leather). Seems like the writer of the sign is not really clear on what it means to be vegan.

You did not clarify Heather’s point. FYI, not all vegans are vegan for ethical reasons. Many do it purely for their health (though, if they remain vegan for a long time or the rest of their life, maybe ethics end up part (or all) of the reason). The maker of the sign was trying to be silly, stating that the cow ate a vegan diet. Obviously that does not mean that a vegan would eat the meat. I’m pretty sure the maker of the sign understands what veganism is. And I’m also pretty sure that they understood that not everyone would find it funny.

Vegan is defined as an ethical standpoint. You can’t really be vegan for your health, though health benefits may happen anyway. “Vegan for health reasons only” is actually termed a ‘plant-based diet’, since veganism encompasses an entire lifestyle of avoiding any animal products, including but not limited to in food, and doing as little harm to other creatures as possible.

Anyway, the sign is a little stupid, but it doesn’t offend me or anything.

People automatically assume that if something is “grass-fed”, “free-range”, ect ect it is a green light to consume meat. However, no matter how the animal is raised, it eventually heads to the slaughter house where it is killed. Someone then consumes the animal’s flesh. The sign is a huge misconception had by many Americans.

Good thing it’s taken to the slaughterhouse first. Grass-fed or otherwise, it would be tragic for someone to consume animal flesh before the cow was good and dead. In all seriousness, though, I respect your belief to avoid animal products and hope you respect mine. I grow my own veggies, love to patronize local fruit farms, and eat meat my uncle raises and slaughters. There’s a huge difference between torturing animals and consuming them in a safe, caring manner.

I have been a vegan for over 15 years and have researched grass-fed, free range, “happy” meat, slaughterhouses, health, nutrition, etc… and I stand by my choice. I will never not be a vegan. However, that doesn’t give me the right to decide how anyone else wants to eat or live their lives. If you are really that offended by the sign, maybe you shouldn’t be reading a blog where meat is displayed and consumed regularly. 🙂

Exactly. Even if you pet the cow daily, give it bubble baths and spoon feed it organic lovingly made home meals the end result is still the same.
An animal was killed because you wanted to eat it. So yeah, think about it….

LOL. It’s right. And it’s like, you’re eating animals ok, they didn’t have a long life, often no quality of said life, and were killed one way or another. If you have other options to feed yourself, why be a part of this? Just because you enjoy it? I say this and I’m 90% vegetarian (I eat fish and sea food sometimes), so I’m not perfect 🙂

The heirloom tomatoes in your salad look amazing! The rare burger, not so much. Your mom must have a strong stomach! I love when restaurants serve grass fed beef, though. I’ve tried to eat only “happy animals” for the last few years, so it’s always nice to see. Love these summery posts!

Love these posts–all of those meals look delicious! I’m going to have to try that salad dressing recipe. I made something similar last week, but used rice wine vinegar–I really want to try it with the apple cider vinegar instead for that extra flavor punch.

Yes, your workouts are great to hear about because they give me ideas for how to change up my workouts. I get bored with them easily. How cute is that ice cream cone!? And Mazen when he raises his little arm! 🙂

Yep still like hearing about your workouts!!! Candied nuts are like the best addition to a salad EVER! I especially love honey roasted pecans! LOVE the restaurant sign…cows are vegan so you don’t have to be! I should be my line for 2014!

i’ve been making *almost* the same salad dressing, adding some minced garlic and using white wine vinegar instead of apple cider. do you know how they (apple/white wine) taste different? i’d guess apple cider would be a bit sweeter…

I really, really love that bowl in the first two pictures! Do you remember where you got it? I think you have the cutest dishes! Also, the maple sunflower butter sounds heavenly and Mazen raising his hand is so cute!

This is by far the best time of year for fresh fruits and veggies and your lately pics definitely prove that! Mazen is a lucky little guy to grow up with such a naturally healthy family = ) keep it up girly!

Summer foods make me so happy too. Whenever I see your food posts, I end up craving something new. This time it’s sweet potato fries!
And yes, I do like seeing your workouts/fitness! Like Jackie said, it’s motivating!

Here comes the weekly awaited post I love reading…I have learnt a lot about nutrition in your posts..mayit be importance of balanced diet ( FAT+CARB+PROTEIN) to adding more eggs, overnight oatmeal..salads..wonderful..! BTW Mazen is the cutest kid…:)

Do you make up your homemade dressing ahead of time or do you make it new each time you make a salad? I’ve wanted to make some homemade ones lately but nothing is jumping out at me. I will fully admit I prefer creamy but have enjoyed olive oil + balasmic before.

I can’t help but cringe as a Microbiologist, lol. Whole cuts of meat are fine to eat rare (steak, lamb, etc) because the outside is high heat seared before serving and the outside remains on the outside. Ground beef/meat should be heated to at least 155 because all the outside becomes mixed with the inside. Even with good meat sources, there can be cross contamination at the slaughter house or even if a chef touches the meat before grinding or if it touches any surface with bacteria, the outside is then mixed in and if made rare, it doesn’t have a chance to be killed. Some people like to take chances though!

Kath, is it intentional or unintentional that you’re consuming less meat these days? For the past month or two, it seems that you’ve gravitated toward more vegetarian meals, only eating fish on occasion. It seems you only eat meat when you go out. Maybe it’s coincidence, but I seemed to be seeing a pattern.